By Christmas, The Sixteen will have given it's 150th performance of Handel's Messiah. Harry Christophers thinks he has conducted the work more often than any living Handelian and it shows in this lush, refined, meticulous reading, with superb soloists in soprano Carolyn Sampson, mezzo Catherine Wyn-Rogers, tenor Mark Padmore and bass Christopher Purves. Put this disc on your Christmas shopping list now; with a bonus CD offering further Handel treats, it's terrific value. Anthony Holden

Its quite a week for Handel fans, from the much recorded Messiah to this never before recorded serenata, written by George Frederic in 1734 to mark the wedding of Princess Anne to Prince William of Orange. This tale of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis conveniently encompasses the sacred muses which legend placed on Mount Parnassus, along with Apollo, god of the arts. Ever the recycler, Handel adapted music from his oratorio, Athalia, for this courtly entertainment, ravishingly sung and played here by the Kings Consort, with soprano Carolyn Sampson in particularly fine form. Stephen Pritchard

Commissioned by Naxos's founder Klaus Heymann, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's cycle of string quartets comes to an end with his ninth and tenth or rather doesnt, as the composer could not bring himself to draw the double-bar line that would bid farewell to the genre, so left the tenth uneasily unfinished. That apart, these are accomplished works belying the inaccessible reputation of so much contemporary music; no 9 echoes the raw noises of the composer's Manchester youth, and the five-movement tenth carries a strain of mourning through its evocation of Scottish dance tunes.Anthony Holden